SELDA to Sara Duterte: political prisoners are not criminals

Press Release
September 15, 2011

DAVAO CITY  –  An organization of former political detainees is disappointed with the statement of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte about the political prisoners saying it was a misinformed statement and uncalled for.

It can be recalled that the city mayor commented in an interview that political prisoner are incarcerated because of crimes they committed and not for political reasons.

“Contrary to the statement of the young Duterte, the 360 political prisoners, including the detained National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace panel consultants, are falsely charged with common crimes and that they're actually incarcerated due to their political convictions”, said Fe Salino, Secretary General of SELDA-SMR.

“Duterte's statement on political prisoners disappointed us because it seems that she is denying the existence of the raging civil war and the government's compliance to human rights instruments and international humanitarian law”

Salino revealed that majority of political detainees were unarmed but politically-active farmers and that most of them were picked up by soldiers and presented as NPA.

“It seems like we are still living in the dark days of Martial Law. Political prisoners are either innocent civilians or members of progressive organizations who were victims of illegal and/or arbitrary arrests due to their opposition to government's anti-people policies or they were wrongfully accused as supporters or member of the New People’s Army (NPA)”, Salino said.

The government is violating the Hernandez Doctrine which became part of the Philippine jurisprudence when, in 1956, the Supreme Court rule in the case of People of the Philippines vs. Amado Hernandez, that a person who commits a political offense could be charged with rebellion but not with common crimes such as murder, arson, robbery, etc. It ruled that the act of rebellion would already include and absorb these crimes.

During a forum with NDFP Peace Panel Chair Luis Jalandoni earlier he claimed that the arrest and detention of NDFP consultants violate the Joint Agreement in Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), which was signed by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and NDFP on February 24, 1995. JASIG provides security and immunity from arrest of all those listed as involved in the peace negotiations.

Salino added that most political prisoners have been slapped with trumped-up criminal charges even without Martial law.